Considering he had just pulled down 14 rebounds in the San Antonio Spurs' 88-78 victory over the Miami Heat at the American Telephone and Telegraph Center on Wednesday, it seemed fair to ask Francisco Elson if Heat center Shaquille O'Neal, all 7-foot-1 and 325-plus-plus-plus pounds of him, had been less of a challenge than the Houston Rockets 7-6, 310-pound Yao Ming.
"Shoot," Elson said, with a note of derision and a glance of astonishment. "That's a big job right there."
Not only did Elson defend O'Neal, he actually outplayed him. Elson finished with an 11-rebound advantage on O'Neal and did solid defensive work on the former MVP, as well.
"I thought Francisco did a good job all the way around," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He worked very hard on Shaq. That's a tough job to give to anybody. So I thought doing that and still concentrating on the boards was really great on his part."
"We know Miami is a very good rebounding team, especially with Shaq on their team," said Elson, who played the entire fourth quarter while Tim Duncan rested on the bench. So we boxed out very well and everybody got down and rebounded."
Elson also rediscovered his shooting stroke, making 6 of 11 shots and scoring a season-high 12 points.
Miami played its fourth-straight game without Dwyane Wade, their leading scorer last season. He is recovering from offseason surgeries on his knee and shoulder.
It should come as no surprise that the Heat haven't been very good without him. At 0-4 this season and 0-7 in the preseason, Miami hasn't won a game — postseason, exhibition or otherwise — since beating Indiana on April 13. Unofficially, the Heat are on a 17-game losing streak. Wade has been medically cleared to return to the court, but the date for his debut remains tentative.
"Hopefully, things get better when Wade comes back," O'Neal said. "He's a great player, and he's going to make everyone else better."
In the meantime?
"We need everyone else to step up their game and play harder," O'Neal said.
Ricky Davis (14 points) and Udonis Haslem (10) answered O'Neal's plea to an extent, but it wasn't enough to help Miami avoid its 20th loss in 21 trips to San Antonio. With the top scoring option in Miami's offense floundering, the Heat remained flummoxed. The 78 points they scored Wednesday brought down their league-worst scoring average to 82.8.
"Unfortunately, our second option is on the bench," Miami coach Pat Riley said, in reference to Wade.
The last time the Heat beat the Spurs on the road, Miami's rookie guard Daequan Cook was in the fourth grade, Jason Williams had yet to transfer to the University of Florida and Penny Hardaway was on the way to his third All-NBA team. In other words, it has been a while.
''You don't have to tell me,'' Riley said before Wednesday night's game. ``It's been tough for us here the past 20 games. But you never know in this league -- with the expected and unexpected.''
''It's frustrating and nobody likes to lose,'' said Haslem, who also had nine rebounds while helping to limit Duncan to 12 points. ``It's not a good feeling. It's not where we want to be or hoped to be. But you have to look at the big picture. We still have a lot more basketball to play. No sense whining and holding your head down.''
Things won't get any easier for the Heat, which returns home Friday to play the Suns and then plays 11 of the next 16 on the road. Those aren't exactly ideal conditions to cure lingering defensive problems and scoring droughts that have plagued the Heat. Miami hasn't been able to generate offense late in the shot clock or stop others from doing so.
''We're just not playing a whole 48 minutes,'' said Davis. ``But it's always discouraging when you're losing games. It doesn't matter if it's one, five or 10. We just have to keep talking, keep working on it.'
'''What was good enough to win tonight became flat and soft,'' Riley said ``The bottom line is we need to play defense for four quarters.''
Bonzi Wells had 15 rebounds on Tuesday night to help the Houston Rockets over the San Antonio Spurs 89-81. Afterward, Wells reiterated that rebounding was his thing.Yao Ming added 13 rebounds. Tracy McGrady had nine rebounds. Houston controlled Tim Duncan and outrebounded the sluggish Spurs 55-28.
"It was a huge advantage that we gave up. It's pretty hard to win like that."
- Manu Ginobilion the Rockets 55-28 rebound advantage.
The Rockets had 25 offensive rebounds, part of the reason they outscored the Spurs 21-3 on second chances. The Rockets finished the first half with a 34-15 rebounding advantage.
"I think we all understand how good we can be," McGrady said. "If we can do this on a consistent basis, then we would be tough to beat."
San Antonio's Tim Duncancalled it a "very, very, very bad rebounding night" for his club — yes, he used three "verys" — and still probably understated the case.
"If they get 20-some-odd second shots," Duncan said, "it starts and ends right there."
"That was one of the keys tonight to win the game," Yao said. "If you look at field-goal percentage (40.7 percent), we were not shooting that well. But we had ... almost 20 (more) shots with offensive rebounds — Chuck (Hayes, who had four offensive rebounds), Bonzi (who had seven) and me (eight) — some on my shots that I missed and (were) put back in. That's about how hungry we were to win the game."
With the victory, the Rockets (4-1) ruined the Spurs' perfect start. The Spurs (3-1) are trying to rebound — in every sense of the word — tonight against the Miami Heat at the A####mp;T Center.
Tim Duncan and Tracy McGrady have helped their teams to quick starts. The division rivals meet for the first time this season on Tuesday in Houston, as McGrady and the Houston Rockets get a chance to see how their new offense matches up against the veteran San Antonio Spurs. McGrady, named the Western Conference's player of the week on Monday, is averaging a league-high 33.3 points per game during Houston's 3-1 start. San Antonio is picking up where it left off last season thanks to the consistent play of Duncan and Tony Parker, who are averaging 18.7 and 17.0 points per game, respectively.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says he's holding off judgment on how much different the Houston Rockets look under new coach Rick Adelman until later in the season.
“They're playing very well right now, very confidently,” Popovich said. “I think they're reacting well to a new situation.”
In previous coaching stops in Portland and Sacramento, Adelman preferred a fast-paced brand of basketball diametrically opposed to the slow-it-down system employed by Jeff Van Gundy, his predecessor in Houston.
"We want to push the ball, but it's not so much pushing the ball as flowing into an offense in transition,” Adelman said. “We're just trying to get by without making a lot of calls. We don't want to walk it up, if we can help it. We want to push it up.”
Adelman's offense so far, however, has featured only McGrady and Yao Ming doing most of the scoring. Yao had 21 points and 11 rebounds to join McGrady as the only Rocket in double figures on Monday.
"We have to learn how to beat a good team and get more people involved," Adelman said.
As a result of the San Antonio Spurs' deep bench, shooting guard Michael Finley has barely had to play. Finley, the Spurs' second-oldest starter at age 34, has only logged 20 minutes per game so far. That should go a ways toward keeping him fresh for later in the year.
So far this season, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has been able to successfully limit the minutes of Finley. As he often does this time of year, Popovich has been utilizing an expanded rotation, playing with various pieces as he attempts to evaluate who can do what. As a result, Finley has been averaging 8.3 fewer minutes per game, than his backup, Manu Ginobili, if you concede that Ginobili actually backs up Finley, and one fewer than Matt Bonner. Effectively massaging Finley's minutes has been a pastime of Popovich's since the guard joined the Spurs two seasons ago. Finley averaged just 22 minutes per game last year, not much more time than he is receiving now.
"It's good for all the guys who are a little bit older to make sure we don't overplay them," Popovich said.
The Spurs, whose last action was a victory against the Sacramento Kings on Friday, don't face the Houston Rockets until tommorrow night. After taking Saturday off, they commenced preparations with a 21/2—hour workout Sunday morning.
By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer SAN ANTONIO, March 13 (AP)-- If the San Antonio Spurs were the forgotten team in the Western Conference race earlier this season, there is no overlooking them now. The Spurs won their 13th straight Tuesday night, beating the Los Angeles Clippers 93-84. They haven't lost since Feb. 11.
That was before Valentines Day folks. Remember Valentines Day? That was a month ago.
"Thirteen games ago, we didn't say we needed to win 13 in a row to get back into this thing,'' said Tim Duncan. "We're just trying to get better as a basketball team, so when the playoffs start, we feel we can win games night in and night out. It would mean more if we won 14,'' Duncan said. "And if we win 14, then 15. You just want to win the next one. That's what it's about.''
With the Dallas Mavericks' 17-game winning streak ending with a 117-100 loss Monday to the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio now owns the league's longest winning streak and its longest of the season.
The Spurs' 46-18 record puts them 3+ games behind the Phoenix Suns, who have won five in a row, for second place in the Western Conference. "We're not looking at the standings yet,'' Duncan said. "It will figure itself out. We're just worried about ourselves right now. Just trying to play our best basketball.''
Well I am looking at the standings and it is looking like a first round playoff matchup with the Houston Rockets. That should be interesting.
MILWAUKEE, March 15 (AP) -- San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich warned the Spurs that facing a downtrodden team in its first game with a new coach can be dangerous. Then they saw it for themselves.
The Milwaukee Bucks made a winner of Larry Krystkowiak in his NBA debut, ending San Antonio's 13-game winning streak with a 101-90 victory on Thursday night. Krystkowiak said he expected a strong effort from his players the first time out. "A lot of times, you get a little adrenaline and spark,'' said Krystkowiak, a Bucks assistant who was promoted and given a multiyear deal hours after the team fired Terry Stotts on Wednesday. "I anticipated our guys playing hard.''
So did Popovich, but he didn't necessarily get it. It was a slightly off night for Spurs stars Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. "That's not going to happen very often,'' Popovich said. "They're human beings, it can happen. But I'm more concerned with the lack of aggressiveness on both ends of the court.''
Parker scored 15 points and played only 6:14 in the decisive fourth quarter. Asked if Parker was one of the players he was referring to when he talked about a lack of aggressiveness, Popovich stood silent and waited for another question to be asked. "I didn't play well at all,'' Parker said. "I'll try to do better Saturday against Boston.''
I hate the way Pops treats Parker.
Ginobili scored 12 on 2-for-10 shooting. "We played terrible,'' Ginobili said. "We've got to realize that the streak doesn't matter.''
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